


How about an hour of your time? (In your dreams, permhead)

by velvetcat09



Series: Yorozuya Toshi-chan and Sakata Fukucho [1]
Category: Gintama
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bottom Hijikata, Crossdressing, M/M, Mutual Pining, Role Reversal, Some action scene, Top Gintoki, Vice-Commander Sakata, Yorozuya Toshi-chan, emotionally constipated idiots, idiots to lovers, spoilers for canon, these two are idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:14:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26807176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/velvetcat09/pseuds/velvetcat09
Summary: “You’d do anything for money, right?”Toushirou exhales the tobacco infused smoke, a scowl takes hold of his entire expression.“This is not that kind of business.”=============AU where Hijikata runs the Yorozuya with Kagura and Shinpachi while Gintoki is the Vice-commander of Shinsengumi. HAPPY GINHIJI DAY!!
Relationships: Hijikata Toshirou/Sakata Gintoki
Series: Yorozuya Toshi-chan and Sakata Fukucho [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2049099
Comments: 13
Kudos: 140





	How about an hour of your time? (In your dreams, permhead)

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY GINHIJI DAY  
> 10/5

* * *

“You’d do anything for money, right?” 

Toushirou exhales the tobacco infused smoke, a scowl takes hold of his entire expression. 

“This is not that kind of business.” 

The other immediately shuffles in their seat, regretting opening their conversation with that line. Toushirou scrutinizes his customer, just a couple words out of that sugar freak of a Vice-commander mouth and he already wants to throw him down the stairs, off his premise. Toushirou is very much close to doing so, Kagura and Shinpachi aren’t around to bound him off his mighty horse after all. But another part of him, the sane one that’s willing to be civil with his customer, holds his body back from leaping to the other end of this table to grab the other by the collar and drag him out of his office. 

“Ehehe, t-that’s not what I meant, you know, Toshi-chan—”

“Who are you calling Toshi-chan, rotten permhead.” 

“Is that not what you call yourself? You have it right outside your house, you know that, right? You clearly put that huge sign outside, why would you put that if you don’t want people calling you that, isn’t that just counter-productive, Yorozuya-san?” 

Toushirou feels like popping a vein. 

“ _You_ …” His blood is boiling. “You’re so _annoying_ , saying ‘that’, ‘that’, ‘that’…”

...

“… like ‘ _that’_?”

“ _GET OUT!_ ”

Sakata avoids the Yorozuya’s bokken attack by grabbing at it mid-strike and Toushirou has to admit that the man’s reflex impresses him. Fast reaction, as expected. But his hatred and annoyance for this rotten Vice-commander already taking roots with no sign of letting go, any last figment of amazement is to be tossed immediately to the nearest trash can and awaits the recycling day. Toushirou glares at Vice-commander Sakata. 

“Oi, oi, is this how you treat your customer, isn’t this too violent for a civil business, Yorozuya-san?” 

Toushirou can’t stand that red eyes. He hisses through gritted teeth. “Get. Out.”

Rather than letting go, Sakata grips the wooden sword tighter. Toushirou notices that the strength from the other end of his sword is slowly overwhelming his own grip. _What does this man want?_

“No. I’m not going.” 

The air around that man changes in an instant and Toushirou realizes why that man gains his moniker in the first place. He feels somewhat stupid for forgetting that part. The glint from those maroon orbs is in an unreadable shade, one that Toushirou rather hates than understands. 

“Like I said earlier, I have a job request.” 

Inhale. _Be the better man, Toushirou_ . Exhale. _Swallow your shame._

The Yorozuya boss lowers his sword when the Vice-commander releases his grip. Toushirou takes his previous seat and Sakata follows. “What do you want?” He offers as tersely as he can.

Toushirou watches the Vice-commander sit a little straighter than before and suddenly he sees the ghost of a tense shoulder from the man, something heavier than air yet transparent like mountain spring water. Those silver bangs of his sure are convenient in hiding his eyes.

_What is he even preparing himself for?_

“Let me have a drink with you.”

_What._

“What.”

Toushirou waits for laughter, a remark like ‘It’s a joke, a joke, haha’, or anything akin to mocking (because sentences like that is surely followed by a backpedal, right?) from that man but disappointingly, none of them comes out. Is it disappointing? Hoping that it’s a joke instead—because that seriousness in Sakata’s face really doesn’t bode well with Toushirou. It makes him uneasy. 

Something about Sakata’s eyes speaks of steadfastness. “I say, let me have a drink with you.” 

Toushirou wants to just reply him with a ‘Is this how you pick up women?’.

“I’ll pay.”

What a terrible line.

“One hour.” Toushirou curses himself for answering.

* * *

It’s a peculiar arrangement and not exactly a business that Toushirou usually conducts. While his company tagline is certainly ‘Will do anything for money’, the truth is that he’s notoriously picky with his customers and job requests. After past trials and errors in running an odd jobs business, Toushirou learns the hard way of accepting requests that could land him in the soup. Back when he was doing it solo, he’d take that kind of risky business, overconfidence was his own thorn and had resulted in something unsavory, not worthy of details. But now that he has kids to take care of (He stopped denying after too many times mother hen-ing those two, he’s been at it for a couple years now anyway), he can’t afford taking risky jobs anymore. 

Not that this one is particularly risky. Nothing dangerous that could threaten his life. Of course not. The closest he gets would probably be something of a scandal since it concerns Edo’s own local celebrity. Like what is the White Demon Vice-commander of Shinsengumi doing in Kabuki-cho? Why is he going up the stairs to the Yorozuya Toshi-chan? What are they doing? What is their relationship? What’s going on behind that closed door—Toushirou thinks again about risking his own reputation.

He tries hard, _really hard_ , to focus on the annoyed part in this whole ordeal with the rotten permhead. But at the end of the day, he is the one left covering his flushed face and clutching over his beating heart in the entryway after that man left. He wills his heart to stop hammering so much over a trivial thing of getting a job request like ‘that’ from the Vice-commander, but said organ just goes ham even more at the thought of it. 

Perhaps this is too early to say, not enough foundation for a backstory, in a certain way clearly something that isn’t meant to be, being forced in place. But Toushirou might or might not have an interest over the White Demon Vice-commander. That man; in all his permy, lazy, unperturbed, dumb, irritating, annoying—Toushirou stops himself from going even further because he _definitely can_ and that will derail his point for sure. And his point being that somehow, some- _hellish_ -how, he develops this high-schooler crush over the rotten Vice-commander after seeing too many of his Gap Moe moments on accident. At first it was just something silly like seeing him greeting the old ladies on the street, then him being playful with the kids, then finding him got dragged into rescuing a cat on the tree, then him secretly feeding stray cats, then—Ah, _hell_ , Toushirou doesn’t want to remember why he’s so fixated on that one rare smile that he accidentally witnessed from that man. This is just beyond embarrassing. He sinks on the wooden floor and buries his heated face in between his knees. 

_What the hell—_

It’s not like the Shinsengumi and Yorozuya are on a good-buddy level kind of relationship, they know each other and that’s pretty much the extent of it. Sure, he has rescued Shinpachi’s sister countless times from that Gorilla stalker of a Commander, even at one point being an ear to that Gorilla’s devastating love story. (To this day, Toushirou doesn’t know how the hell did he end up listening to Kondo-san’s wail in that bar. He remembered it being an accidental meeting, but he guessed, cursed his soft heart for anything related to a romance story, he couldn’t help but listen. That guy had looked so miserable after all.) Sure, they crossed on the street a couple of times already, but that’s just natural when you literally live in the same town, right? You’re bound to cross-path, especially when his work is literally about going all around Edo doing various different jobs each time, and that guy’s job is to go all around Edo patrolling and capturing terrorists. Things like meeting on the streets, eating at the same restaurant, going to the same cinema on a day-off, watching the same movie, going to the same bathhouse, t-that’s just c-coincidence, _ri-right?_

Y-yeah, those are coincidences. Toushirou has dealt with that spiraling train of thoughts ages ago and came to the conclusion that it’s pure coincidence. Nothing more than that. Nothing like how their brains run on the same wavelength or something. Coming up with the same ridiculous roundabouts way to avoid each other that ended up just piling the two of them together in one place. No, no, those were all coincidences. It’s a closed case, although he didn’t write it on the Yorozuya log book (it was his day-off, why would he write that on his log book anyway), Toushirou properly closed that chapter of his life and refused to open it again. 

He’s not going to pry it open, no, no, even if that bastard permhead is now asking for such an ambiguous job request. It’s just a casual one hour of drinking, at any private place that Sakata booked them for, not anywhere that they would both be recognized easily, not at the Yorozuya’s place, certainly not anywhere near the Shinsengumi compound. For one hour, random but will be scheduled accordingly to both of their schedules, Toushirou is at the Vice-commander’s beck and call. 

Toushirou rubs his eyes with the heel of his palm. 

_What an annoyingly troublesome job request.._

* * *

“Toushirou-san, you’re heading out again?” 

“Ah, yeah. Won’t be long.” Toushirou doesn’t look back at the curious gaze from Shinpachi. He hopes the kids aren’t suspicious of his random outings at night, this is the sixth time in the past month already. It’s not a noticeable pattern (yet), true to the rotten Vice-commander’s words; they were completely random, out of the blue, one hour of the day. They planned each meeting beforehand, it takes at least a day or two to get their schedules right (apparently the Vice-commander has a pretty tight schedule, Toushirou thought the man only lounges around every day at the dango shop, huh.) 

However, taking Shinpachi’s words into consideration and also the stares that he could feel boring holes at the back of his head from the two kids as Toushirou headed to the entryway, they probably already have their suspicions. 

_Come on,_ it’s just an hour. It’s fine, he’s not doing anything that should make him feel nervous of getting caught red-handed, anyway. In the end, their appointments are nothing but a normal afterwork drinking session. That is, two people drinking privately in a privately rented room at bars somewhere that isn’t close to their known places. 

Yep, normal.

Toushirou shakes his head. 

No, no, no, it’s not suspicious like _that_. They don’t drink until drunk! In fact, in the place they frequent, it has a TV at the corner of the room and both of them just end up watching night-time shows usually. Sometimes Sakata is more preoccupied with his phone, sometimes he lounges and has his attention glued to the TV screen. They don’t even talk much, they share quips about the show or anything that doesn’t concern business and work. Their one hour would pass without either of them noticing it. Sakata’s phone would vibrate and then the man would stand up and slide an envelope over the table. It’s an odd arrangement, Toushirou agrees. The permhead Vice-commander pays him for one hour every other night to sit and watch TV? What kind of request is that, and how odd it is that it comes from someone in a government position such as the Vice-commander of Shinsengumi. (Toushirou realizes the implication and he really really doesn’t want to delve into that rabbit hole of a thought-line that has something to do with the words personal and rent) It doesn’t make sense.

The more Toushirou thinks about the oddity of it, the more he hits the brick wall at the end of it with a large written word of ‘That’s because you’re the Odd Jobs (Yorozuya)’. Of which he sighs in defeat. 

Ah, well, he gets paid anyway. 

Toushirou walks the street with a memorized route; their rendezvous (he shouldn’t have used that word but— _whatever_ ) point is always the same bar at the scarce side of Edo. He supposes the Vice-commander knows the owner and already has their discretion, that’s why the man chose the place. He puffs out a smoke, before placing back the kiseru in his mouth. The journey isn’t that long, but the route that he takes is one that isn’t frequented by people normally. If it is already pretty much deserted during the day, then by night it’s eerily empty. It’s a dangerous route, if you think about it; a perfect spot for manslaughter, the kind of place that could reproduce so many scenes from thriller movies. Yet, he hardly ever heard of such crime. 

The news speaks of numerous crimes every day, but you’d hardly ever encounter one on the street. Kids playing freely on the road with no supervision. People leaving their houses without locking their doors. That’s because they’re always captured before they get to execute it. Always reports of attempted murder, attempted bombing, attempted robbery; crime rates are as high as always, but so does the capture rate. That’s the main reason why the police force is well respected in Edo, and in its extension, the Shinsengumi who keeps thwarting crime syndicates and terrorist acts. 

To think that a man as lazy-looking as that bastard could command his troops as effective as that. 

Toushirou will admit it a little, that aspect of that bastard is also what makes him interested in the man as well. Just a bit. He won’t divulge more about it. That kind of quality is attra— _admirable_ to anyone, r-right?

He clicks his tongue, feeling a tiny bit of heat spreading on his face. 

Toushirou arrives at the place and greets the old man attending the bar. “Ah, danna, welcome.”

“Is he already here?”

“No, not yet. But your room is already prepared upstairs.” Toushirou nods politely and heads to their reserved room. 

He sits himself on his usual side of the low table, emptying his kiseru on the prepared tobacco tray. Sakata is usually late, Toushirou would be the one waiting in the room for about 5 or 10 minutes. Other times he’d meet the man outside on the street, as if waiting for Toushirou to enter the place together. Those times are the most awkward since they just silently walk inside the bar. They don’t exchange words much and Toushirou finds the stark contrast to their usual behavior in public (where they yell at the top of their lungs just from the sight of the other) too odd to even be worth a mention, so he just goes along with it. 

Sakata enters the room after Toushirou has already been served his sake and is watching the start of a game-show on the TV. 

“Sorry for being late.”

“You’re always late.” Toushirou quips while nibbling on the fried fish skin, not paying attention to the ever late Vice-chief. When the man drops to sit on the opposite end of the table and Toushirou finds his body moving on its own accord to pour a glass of sake for the other, he realizes how ‘casual’ this is turning to be. 

From the corner of his eye he can see Sakata loosening his cravat. He already has his Shinsengumi coat removed and folded on the floor. Toushirou fully looks when he hears the other speak again. 

“Just wake me up when the one hour is up, I’m gonna doze for a bit.” Sakata uses his folded coat as a makeshift pillow and lays his head over it, in fact laying his whole body on the tatami floor and covering his eyes with the cravat to block the lights. 

Toushirou watches as the Vice-commander drifts off to sleep fairly quickly. His body moves on its own again to grab the remote and lower the TV volume. A beat passed, the game-show host doing an animated gesture as she describes their next panel guest, Toushirou hears none of it. The raven finds himself stunned at the sight of the silver permhead lying on the floor just at the other side of this table. _Too odd to be worth a mention._

It’s not like he can see him properly, his view is blocked by the table itself, the only thing he could see is the permhead’s feet sticking out near the TV. Against the rational part of him, Toushirou cranes his neck to get a better view. He blinks at the sight, Sakata’s shirt is tucked messily, like he did it in a hurry. The guy is usually messy but that messiness is clearly from haste, by the looks of it. The way he has his arm covering over his eyes, making the end of his shirt lifted a bit to give view of his skin. Except there’s no skin being displayed, Toushirou sees bandages instead. Now he notices that there are also bandages peeking from the Vice-commander’s unbuttoned chest, free of view from the removed cravat. 

The Yorozuya boss watches the rise and fall of the Vice-commander’s sleeping figure. 

...

Sakata wakes up with a bitter taste in his mouth. His body aches and his eyes blearily blink to adjust to the dark room. He frowns when his senses finally come to him. _What time is it?_

He pats around for his phone and finds it tossed underneath the low table, snapping it open to see that the digital clock says 23:17. Shit, that’s not an hour nap at all. His head snaps to the person he tasked with keeping the time, a complaint is already at the tip of his tongue. Did the Yorozuya just leave him here then? Dammit—

Sakata looks down at the white sheet covering him. No, not entirely white, it has a pattern on its sleeves. He recognizes that swirling aqua. His eyes then land on the figure leaning on the wall next to the balcony, deep in slumber. Then at the tobacco tray next to him, at the pipe still in that open palm, the moon casting a gleaming light at the metal part. Piecing those together into a sequence and you get the image of someone watching the moon while smoking. Someone who fell asleep in the end. 

Sakata looks down at the kimono robe draped over him. He rubs his face. 

The Vice-commander then returns the kimono to its owner in the same way that the Yorozuya did to him. He places the envelope containing tonight’s payment on the table before taking his leave, coat in his arm. He steps as quietly as he can against the tatami and Sakata lingers just a moment at the door, not looking. 

He goes downstairs and meets the old man.

“Oyaji, sorry for the trouble but I have a request.”

“Request?”

“I was wondering if I can rent the room until morning? He’s sleeping upstairs.”

“Ah, of course, no need to worry, the room is yours, danna.” Sakata places the money on the cash tray.

“Alright, thanks, here’s for the trouble. I’ll be taking my leave.” 

“Danna, ah, wait—are you sure you’re not going to take him home instead? I’m sure your friend would appreciate it, rather than leaving him here… ”

Sakata’s hand stops on the door. “We’re not that kind of friend, Oyaji.”

* * *

The next time they meet is during a cloudy day. 

“Ho, it’s you.” 

Toushirou steps out of the shaded alleyway, approaching the Vice-commander who’s standing at what looks like the aftermath of a fight. A one-sided fight, judging by the sight. Surrounding him are numerous corpses of terrorists, blood pooling at the man’s feet. It’s just the Vice-commander and his sheathed sword. Last man standing.

Those crimson eyes hold a different kind of gaze.

Toushirou scans the place for the body of his last lead to this job. He found the guy near a pile of trash. After he checks for the guy’s condition, Toushirou inwardly sighs. There goes his trail. He has to go with the backup plan then. 

Toushirou hears footsteps approaching him.

“That's your lead?” 

“Yeah.” Toushirou lights his pipe. They stay quiet after that, both peering down at the dead man slumped on the ground. He should’ve known, it was bound to happen, he did predict this kind of outcome. The moment Toushirou noticed the man’s link to the Jouishishi, he should’ve acted sooner because things like this would certainly happen. 

The Shinsengumi sure works efficiently, or should he say The Vice-commander is. 

He’s not surprised, not at all. Disappointed that he lost his trail? Sure. That’s why he had a backup plan in place already, he had anticipated this. It’ll take longer to fulfill the job request now but that can’t be help, can it? But no need to worry, Toushirou has his channel of informants across Kabuki-cho, he’ll be able to pick it up again in no time. 

“I can have you look through Zaki’s report if you want.” Toushirou looks at the man standing next to him with a sudden perplexed face. The Vice-commander’s face is as hard to read as ever, but in a flash it changes into his trademark grin. “Payment for next Saturday?” 

Toushirou scowls.

“I don’t need that kind of payment.” He has no interest in being indebted in that kind of way. Their jobs are meant to be separated, their businesses shouldn’t collide in the first place, despite the countless times it sure did. This is exactly why he doesn’t like meddling with jobs that reek of government involvement. But the only kind of job that comes with a good amount of cash are those that involve such types of elites. Everyone is dirty and the Yorozuya just happens to be the sort of business that doesn’t speak behind the client’s back. 

Nevertheless, Toushirou has his pride to hold. It is enough that he already accepted the man’s stupid arrangement, he will not add more reason for Toushirou to be at the man’s mercy like that. 

On Saturday, Sakata paid him extra for no apparent reason.

* * *

“Welcome to Kamakko club~ Oh, if it isn’t Vice-chief Sakata, how odd to find the Vice-chief wandering into our doorstep.” 

“Yo, Agomi, is Katsura working today?”

“It’s Azumi, you curly head.”

“It’s not Katsura, it’s Zurako!”

“Yo, Zura.”

“Zurako!”

“Whatever.” 

Toushirou manages to hide just in time behind the stage wall. _Why the hell is that rotten bastard here?! What is he doing? Why is asking for Katsura—_

Toushirou backpedals on his own thoughts. He should clarify himself first. Right. So, first thing first, due to a past incident that resulted in him accidentally ‘offending’ Madam Saigou, Toushirou is roped to work at the okama club as repayment. Now, that debt he had already paid a long time ago (like a couple months ago; honestly, only took him like three days working as an okama). But Saigou was, to say the least, _impressed_ with Toushirou’s work that the good madam extended his contract (there wasn’t even a contract in the first place, he was conned to join this crossdressing hell from the beginning) and Toushirou, being the good law-abiding model citizen of Kabuki-cho that he is, couldn’t decline such offer (he was threatened into it, they threatened to just outright kidnap him into working for the club. It was either working part-time there voluntarily or becoming a drag queen forever. A toddler could’ve made that decision as well.) And there you have it, Toushirou occasionally dons a soft baby blue kimono and a long jet-black wig that is parted into two lovely braids and he colors his lips with a soft red lipstick to entertain groups of disgusting old men that reek of cheap booze and unchecked libido. 

_It’s for the money_ , Toushirou keeps himself together by chanting that mantra whenever he has to be in this bar. 

One thing after another, he met Katsura—well, as the man adamantly keeps correcting whenever he’s here in this establishment, Zurako; the leader of the Jouishishi faction that is the sore thumb for the Shinsengumi. Toushirou only knows so much from his own line of work being the Yorozuya. Every now and then he gets intel that would lead him to the Joui spider web and Toushirou knows better than to meddle in such a nest. 

Not that its leader is a dangerous man. In fact, over the time that he’s acquainted (nowadays drinking buddy, _eugh_ ) with Katsura Kotarou, Toushirou comes to the conclusion that the man is just a colossal moron. A surprising fact, to know that there is someone even dumber than the silver haired dumbass standing next to him over there near the bar. 

Which begs the question, _what the hell are they doing?!?!?!_

_Are they not enemies? Isn’t the sole purpose of the Shinsengumi is to thwart the likes of Katsura? Why are they conversing over there like good pals? What’s with that laughter from Katsura, why is he patting on Sakata’s shoulder so nonchalantly, what is their connection?!_

Toushirou’s grip on the wall is slowly destroying it. 

Then he watches Azumi ushering them to one of the private rooms, and Toushirou feels coldness sweeping him over. He blinks, once and twice, until he realizes what he’s doing right there feeling _upset_ over the scene that just unfolded in front of him. 

_What is he, a teenage girl?_

Toushirou shakes his thoughts away, willing those thoughts away as he returns to the stage. Saigou will have his head if he’s not working. And so he dances to distract his mind from what just happened, keeping himself occupied with the off-tune music and the revolting bunch of old men in front of the stage cheering for him. He doesn’t think about the fact that somewhere in this bar, precisely at the VIP room no. 3 near the washroom, the Shinsengumi Vice-commander is spending his time being accompanied by an okama who seems to be a good buddy of said Vice-chief. 

…

…

...

He’s jealous. 

That’s what this is, isn’t it?

Toushirou was on his way to the changing room to end his shift when Azumi called for him. 

“Bring this to room 3, Toshiko-chan.” Toushirou looks down at the tray of anmitsu and scrunches his face. But he delivers the tray anyway. Excusing himself when he enters the room and keeping his head low to further hide himself from being discovered by the moronic Vice-chief. 

He almost bumps against Katsura when the man is also on his way out. The Joui leader steadies Toushirou by grabbing his arm, stopping him from falling backward and also dropping the tray. “Toshiko, are you alright?”

Toushirou blinks at Katsura’s concern, the man really has nothing but seriousness through and through, huh? Well, as dumb as it is, that is. 

“Oi, is my order here yet or what?” Toushirou was just about to ask whether Katsura is leaving or not when he hears the annoying voice of that rotten guy and Katsura shoves him inside the room. 

“Hai, here’s your order, Gintoki.” 

“I ordered a cabaret girl with my anmitsu.”

“Too bad, this is an okama club, Gintoki. This here is the second best that this place has, of course me being the number one okama in this place, but too bad, I am simply unaffordable for you. (Toushirou hears Sakata saying “Who the fuck wants to afford you.”). You either have him or the other—”

“Nope, nope, I’ll take the anmitsu, thanks.” 

Toushirou wants to just slam the bowl of dessert right at the annoying bastard’s face but that’ll risk himself being discovered so he just stands there fuming in anger. _Why is it so easy to get angry at this perm head bastard?_ That’s a question Toushirou would like to know the answer desperately, honestly. This guy riles him up and makes his heart go badump like a schoolgirl at the same time, it makes him want to shake the guy violently and ask what the hell is he doing to his heart. 

Toushirou blinks, where’s Ka—he already left, didn’t he?

Katsura abandoned him.

“Hello, are you going to just stand there or finally give me my anmitsu. The ice is already melting, oi.”

_This smug bastard…_

But Toushirou realizes his current position and makes an excuse in a hushed high-pitched voice, before then placing the bowl of anmitsu on the table. He’s about to excuse himself out when a hand grabs his wrist just in time as he was pulling away, and in an instant Toushirou shoots a glare in reflex. 

“That’s one hell of a look you got there, ojou-san.” _Who the fuck are you calling ojou-san, you bastard—_

“Please let go of my hand, sir.” Toushirou gives him a customer service smile as best as he can.

“On second thought, I think I’ll take the okama with my anmitsu as well.” _I’m gonna punch him. I’m gonna punch him right on his perfect chiseled jaw—_

“Sir, I’m going to ask you again to _please let go of my hand_.”

“Here, sit with me instead.” Sakata yanks him by the wrist and suddenly Toushirou finds himself sitting right next to the guy. A 10/10 cheeky move from the Vice-chief if he’s aiming to be kicked in the balls next but because of the momentum and such bullshit, a rather cliché scene happens where Toushirou loses his balance momentarily and leans close to the only person next to him for a pillar, to the point of their body touching—

Toushirou punches Sakata in the face. 

“OW! WHAT THE HELL??!!” 

“Sir seems to have forgotten the ‘no touching’ policy in this bar, that is sexual harassment.”

“I just grabbed your wrist! Also I didn’t do anything else!! You were the one who fell on me!! The hell— _ouch_ , you really are so violent, what are you like female gorilla no. 2??? Sheesh..” Sakata nurses his stinging nose, consoling himself by getting a spoonful of his dessert. 

“I’m leaving.” Toushirou stands up and in brutal honesty (that is if he’s being honest about this for once), he was sort of hoping Sakata would grab his wrist again, stopping him. But alas no such thing will happen twice. Rather, he sees the one hand of the Vice-commander that isn’t still pinching his nose is clenched on his lap instead, holding back. Huh.

“Can’t I not spend time with you here?” Toushirou stops, blinks, looks straight at the silver haired man, questioning. “I’ll pay if that’s what you want, but can’t you just sit down for a second?” 

There’s a sense of ‘oh’ that settles between them and Toushirou returns to the sofa, this time sitting with a respectable distance from the other. He watches as Sakata pours him a glass of sake and the part-timer host inside Toushirou feels like he should be the one doing the pouring. Sakata pours himself a glass and takes a gulp. 

“Right, go on, ask away.” 

Toushirou frowns. _What?_

“Huh?”

“You want to know what me and Zura were talking about, right?” The way Sakata looks back at him has Toushirou’s brow twitches for some reason. It’s a gaze that seems to pierce right into the other’s eyes, reading his thoughts. Sakata seems to take Toushirou’s silence as a ‘yes’ when he keeps talking.

“We’re old friends, you could say. We went to the same temple school.” Sakata takes another spoonful of his anmitsu. “Takasugi, you know?” 

“Yes.” The Vice-chief of Mimawarigumi, Takasugi Shinsuke. He’s not heard of the man much but he’s aware of the Mimawarigumi who acts as the ‘elite’ counterpart of Shinsengumi. What he knows of the police force is nothing more than just some bird’s chirps that he picked up whenever his job deals with high-ranking citizens. Those who want to find proof of their wives cheating on them, those who want to investigate their husbands; infidelities that run rampant inside those elite’s households. 

“That guy is such a nagging shortstack; ‘Zura this’, ‘Zura that’, if he wants to check on his guy so much then just come on your own, dammit.” Sakata clicks his tongue. “He was also in the same temple school with me and Zura. I don’t want to know where their relationship is currently at, but he asks me to check on Zura every now and then. Can’t believe it, I’m like their messenger guy or something. At least pay the delivery fee, tch.” 

Toushirou keeps himself quiet because he himself is dealing with his own turmoil of _why the hell is he feeling relieved all of the sudden?!_

“Why are you… telling me all this?” Toushirou frowns at the way Sakata faces him as if about to express something but in the end only gives him a blank monotone expression that he always has. 

“Who knows.” 

Toushirou frowns harder.

“Right, now that I’ve told you a little something about myself, why don’t you tell me about yourself as well? Eye for an eye, yes?” The corner of Toushirou’s right eye twitches. 

This guy, he already knows it’s him, doesn’t he? Ah, _dammit_.

“I…” It’s amazing how he can still frown even further, he’s adding more wrinkles on his face.

“I run a small odd jobs business in Kabuki-cho.” Toushirou feels like sweating.

“… Are you even trying?” Sakata deadpans.

“I, uh, uhm…” _Think, think, Toushirou, think, use your brain, what can you tell yourself to this annoying bastard_. 

“I like mayonnaise.”

“…”

“…”

“… You know what, forget I ask anything. It’s painful to watch you try like that.” 

The raven feels his face warming up slightly. Toushirou always denies it when he gets embarrassed but this time, he admits to it. Sakata just revealed something personal and all he could think was how much of a mayora he is. That’s not even something new, the guy already knows that Toushirou is addicted to mayonnaise because too many times they’ve stumbled into the same izakaya and squabble over whose taste bud is more superior than the other (of course it’s Toushirou’s, no doubt about it). He might as well just say that he breathes air with how lame his words are.

Toushirou wants to retort Sakata’s words just out of spite but in truth, he really doesn’t have anything in his head to say. If anything, his head is just filled with a bunch of questions regarding this man who is eating his bowl of sweets with no care in the world. Toushirou picks one of those questions.

“That time, why did you come? Why the request?” Choppy as it seems, he knows what he’s saying is too vague than what he has prepared in mind, but something tells him that Sakata would still be able to answer it, the man would still be able to read into his words. For how much he appears to be aloof and uncaring, the Vice-commander is really perceptive.

Sakata glances at him. He refills his empty cup of sake. 

“I heard from Kondo.” Sakata begins. “After you helped return his drunken ass back to the barrack, he told me there’s this guy in Kabuki-cho who’s a great listener and that he helped him vented off some steam in a bar.” Toushirou remembered that time. When he accidentally stumbled into an izakaya and saw the Commander of Shinsengumi drowning in bottles of sake looking all miserable. In the beginning he stayed clear of the gorilla, but his conscience took hold of him somewhere in the middle of that and next thing he knew, he was intently listening and giving the man advice for his pathetic love life. That was the first of many, as in the gorilla has sort of become his drinking buddy now and that they meet at bars from time to time, the commander much more sober and Toushirou begins to see the man in a clearer light. He’s a good fellow, Toushirou can see himself gravitating towards his character, it’s not hard to imagine himself following Kondo Isao and his brand of bushido around, for some reason. 

“Not a lot of people would hear the wail of a gorilla, so I merely had to see the person for myself.” Sakata twirls the spoon. “At first I thought I complained about something as well, see if Kondo’s right about you being a ‘good listener’.” Toushirou’s eye twitches, that was a test, wasn’t it?

“But I got nothing at that time, so I just asked for your favor, think about what I want to complain about later.” _This guy really is the worst_ ; is what Toushirou says to himself again and again, to steer himself clear from thinking the alternative because despite what he says, Sakata has not complained about anything in the past couple months that they’ve gone through this bizarre _work_ contract. 

Toushirou clicks his tongue, folding his arms in front of him. “You’re such a nuisance, Vice-commander-san.” He hears the man let out a snort of laughter as he finishes his dessert. 

“Kondo was right, though. You’re a good company.” Sakata has a smile on his face. “Would’ve been great if I didn’t have to pay you for it.” The raven blinks at that, watching the other stands up and heads for the door. He only sees a glimpse of it, but again, the Vice-commander has an unreadable expression on his face. Something like a mixture of disappointment and something else that he couldn’t decipher. Somber.

Toushirou lets out his voice before thinking about it. “Wait—” 

Sakata looks at him, waiting by the door. 

“You—” He stops, realizing that he doesn’t know what to say to Sakata’s last word, anyway. “H-How do you know it’s me?”

At that, Sakata’s face takes a familiar mirthful look. “You reek of tobacco, Yorozuya-san.” Then the man leaves Toushirou alone in the room. After not quite digesting what had just happened for a good minute or two, Toushirou takes a whiff of himself. He frowns. All he could smell is the cheap perfume Agomi sprayed on his rented kimono.

* * *

“Yes, Yorozuya Toshi-chan, how may we help you?”

“Ah, it’s me.” 

“Sakata-san?”

“Right, is your boss at home?” Shinpachi tilts his head, questioning despite knowing that the other won’t be able to get it because this is a phone conversation. But the oddity deserves a physical acknowledgement, nonetheless.

“Toushirou-san is currently out. Is there something you need, Sakata-san?” Shinpachi notices the other pauses before answering him. 

“No, nothing. Uh, do you know when he’ll be back?” 

“Probably in the afternoon, he’s with Kagura-chan sending off Umibouzu at the Central Terminal.” 

“Ah, alright, thanks, Shinpachi-kun.” 

“Do you want me to leave a message for him?” 

“No, no, it’s fine. Thanks again.” And then Sakata hangs up the call, leaving Shinpachi perplexed in the living room, a broom in hand. 

The Shimura boy keeps that single call to himself when Toushirou and Kagura come home. He doesn’t mention it, opting to compile it to his small investigation. Him and Kagura have been suspicious for the past couple months, to be frank. 

Their boss, more or less brother/father figure, has been doing suspicious things on his own. Every now and then, Toushirou-san goes out during the night for about an hour or so. He doesn’t mention where he’s going, nor giving hints of what he’s doing. He goes out, then comes back. Shinpachi is aware of adults’ drinking lifestyle, he knows Toushirou-san goes out drinking with Hasegawa-san and lately, also with her sister’s gorilla stalker. On those occasions, Toushirou-san would come back exhausted rather than drunk. The man is the designated driver kind of guy, he’s the one who has to stay sober while his friends go apeshit drunk, he’ll be the one to carry them back home. That’s the kind of person Toushirou-san is. However, despite how exasperated he looks whenever he’s back from those drinking sessions, there’s always a hint of a looseness on that man. That despite his troublesome drinking buddies, Toushirou-san unwinds and enjoys his time with them. 

That relaxedness isn’t there whenever Toushirou-san is back from that one-hour outing. When the Yorozuya boss returns, sliding the front door closed behind him, he’d stand on that spot longer than usual. His face is a mixture of loss, confusion, and something else. It’s the kind of look after you return home from going to the convenience store, you still have your plastic bag in hand but rather than checking the content, you ponder on the entryway over the one bottle of shampoo that you wonder if you remember buying or not. The kind of look when you go outside and frown, wondering if you left the stove on or not.

Shinpachi doesn’t know much, neither does Kagura. They both care about their brother/father figure and because they care that much, they respect it when Toushirou doesn’t divulge about his personal issues. And also, the Yorozuya boss is exceptionally good at shutting down the two kids with his rant. 

But this one sudden call, from the White Demon Vice-Commander nonetheless, this one adds a rather crucial puzzle piece to his investigation. Shinpachi recalls the times when Toushirou-san would receive a phone call and then one or two days later, he’d have that one-hour appointment. Now that he puts it that way, those calls really do align with Toushirou-san’s outings. And if his speculation is true, that these appointments are between the Vice-commander and Toushirou-san, then what makes of the expressions Toushirou-san has at the end of every outing?

The two of them, from what he and Kagura know on a daily basis, are not exactly on the friendliest terms. They bicker a lot; argue, fight, butt-heads a lot. Mostly over petty little things, insults that are just thrown for the sake of annoying the other side. But both Yorozuya kids know, realize it as time goes, that there is an unbreakable connection being formed there between the Shinsengumi and Yorozuya. Their fights are proof of that rotten bond.

Shinpachi refrains himself from telling Kagura because he knows she’ll either go and confront Toushirou-san or Vice-commander Sakata. Most likely the latter and Shinpachi could predict a scene with something like the Vice-chief being grabbed by the collar by the yato girl, and then the sight of Vice-commander Sakata with bloodied head on the ground.

This is not something that he should meddle with, _yet_ , Shinpachi concludes.

* * *

However. Knowing that person’s orbital in this small solar system of the Yorozuya, it serves as a good emergency call for when unexpected things happen. 

“Where did you say he was heading again?”

“I don’t know for sure, but Toushirou-san said he’s visiting his hometown for a couple days. He always returned every year on his late brother’s death anniversary. He goes there alone annually. It’s in Bushuu, that’s all that we know.” Shinpachi relays it from the backseat, Kagura huddling over herself in the passenger seat while Sakata drives them into the highway. 

Toushirou-san said he’ll be back soon, he usually only takes two to three days at top whenever he visits his old town. That was almost a week ago now, with no news or all from the Yorozuya boss, Shinpachi acted in desperation. Kagura was reluctant at the beginning, questioning why Shinpachi would ask the rotten permhead’s help, of all people. But the girl agrees in the end after Shinpachi explained what he found out so far about the two adults. Shinpachi’s guess was further confirmed when Sakata didn’t think twice in telling the two kids to hop into his car.

It’s roughly an hour drive to the countryside. Toushirou went by train, Shinpachi said. The kids escorted their boss to the station themselves and the boy remembers the destination of Toushirou’s ticket. They start there in tracing the man’s disappearance. They arrived by the Omiya station around noon and found themselves in a pickle when they realized they didn't exactly have anything else to use in tracking Toushirou’s whereabouts. 

“What about Toshi’s family, yes?” 

“That’s right, that could work, Kagura-chan.” Shinpachi notices Sakata returning from chatting with the station guard. “Did you find anything, Sakata-san?”

“There's a security camera but they don’t keep the recordings long here, so footage like from one week ago is already deleted. They did recall seeing a black-haired man in white kimono and black outfits, so I think it’s safe to say that your boss arrived here.” Sakata runs a hand through his silver hair, looking outside the train station. 

“Shall we try asking around for Toshi’s family? Someone must know of his family, right?” 

Sakata looks at Kagura, then scrunching his face in thoughts. “Well, it’s not a small province so there’s no guarantee just going by name would get us far.”

“But there’s nothing else we can do than try this!” 

Sakata can’t say no to how the two kids look at him expectantly. It’s not like he himself disagrees with the idea. It’s just that, unlike the two of them, the Vice-chief may or may not have some information pertaining to Hijikata Toushirou. He can’t exactly admit it out in the open but as a police officer with an interest in a certain _someone_ , Sakata did dig up about the Yorozuya. Nothing too intrusive, just a light background check. He found the family name Hijikata and Sakata found himself searching records for that name. 

What he found was a wealthy farmer family in the Bushuu province. Sakata was about to just dismiss the entire information had it not been for the suspected illegal trading involvement that came up on the family’s police record. It dated almost a decade ago and Toushirou never brought anything up about his family, the man barely tells anyone of his family name to begin with. Sakata, who could understand the need to hide one’s past more than well, never brought it up in conversation. 

“Shinpachi-kun, you mention he has a brother, do you know anything about that?” 

“Toushirou-san told us once about his late brother, Hijikata Tamegorou. He didn’t say much other than just mentioning that he has a brother and that he died several years ago, before me and Kagura-chan met Toushirou-san.” 

Sakata sighs, tussling his hair in low frustration. “Your boss really doesn’t open up much, huh.” 

Kagura and Shinpachi look down at that, silently agreeing on Sakata's words. “If you say that he usually visits for a couple days, that means he’s staying somewhere, right?”

The kids avert their gaze back to Sakata and Shinpachi seems to get the hint. “You mean…” 

“There might be a family member still alive, that might be where he’s staying.” 

“Then, we ask around for the Hijikata family house, yes?” Sakata pats Kagura’s shoulder in encouragement. 

“I say we split and meet here again in three hours.” Kagura and Shinpachi nod simultaneously before running in opposite directions. Sakata watches their backs before picking on a direction towards the small town. His first destination is the local food stalls, preferably the oldest looking one. He knows from experience, when dealing with suspected illegal crimes, it’s better to trust the folks than at any officials.

* * *

They found a lead, well, sort of. 

The found words from the locals of the Hijikata family’s demise after the last head of the family died a couple years back. When asked about Hijikata Tamegorou, they pointed the three to a house on the outskirts of the province, surrounded by large paddy fields. But when they came there, the house no longer belonged to the Hijikata family. The three of them were shooed out by some rugged men and something tells Sakata that these were not just some plain old rude men living in that huge house. 

Hitting a roadblock, they decide to stay at a local inn. After having dinner, the two kids were fast to hit the bed, exhausted from gathering whatever information they could of their missing leader. Sakata went out to lounge on the balcony with a store-bought cup of sake in tow, and that’s when he saw a particular someone passing the road down below. 

Sakata wastes no time; in fact, not even wasting any time to run through the staircase because the Vice-commander practically leaps off the veranda, hopping down from roof to roof to get to the ground. His footings destroy some of the shingles.

“Toushirou!” 

The guy turns his head and his eyes land on Sakata right at the exact moment when the Vice-commander lands on the ground. 

“Sakata!” Toushirou gapes at the silver haired man approaching him. 

“What are you doing here?!”

“What are _you_ doing here?! Your kids are looking for you!” 

Toushirou doesn’t know which shocks him the most, the fact that Sakata is saying that Kagura and Shinpachi are looking for him, or the fact that Sakata is standing right in front of him saying that. In his stun, he frowns instead. “They’re.. here?”

“Of course they are, their leader is missing for a week, you don’t think they’d be looking for you?!” 

Toushirou looks like a dumbstruck goldfish.

“What about you, why are _you_ here?” 

Sakata clams up with that. When he speaks again, there’s a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

“They ask for me.”

“They ask for you?”

Sakata waves his hands. “ _Argh_ , forget that. Why are you not home yet? You’ve been gone for a week, what are you even doing here?” 

“It’s..” Toushirou considers his answers. He could say that it’s none of the other’s business and the raven can imagine the kind of aggravated reply he’d get in return. Sakata already went out of his way to get here to the countryside from the request of Kagura and Shinpachi, dismissing him by saying it’s none of his business would definitely infuriate the man. Not to mention that it won’t settle well in Toushirou’s own conscience. Then again, it’s not like Sakata is the kind of man that he can just shake off with that kind of remark.

The alternative is explaining his situation. However, that one is literally against his initial plan of excluding everyone from the danger he’s delving here. The very reason that he doesn’t bring the kids is because he wants to keep them out from the situation he’s landed on. Explaining it to Sakata would mean that he has to explain it to the kids as well, and that’ll just create a mess that he had carefully tried to avoid.

Sakata sighs and rubs the back of his neck. “If you don’t want to explain, then it’s fine. But you should’ve made a call that you’re okay. It’s the least you can do for the kids.”

There it is. The hint of that dismissive tone in Sakata’s words. Something that Toushirou cannot understand about the man. For someone who speaks freely and carelessly, the way he gives up easily on other’s explanations pisses Toushirou off. The Yorozuya doesn’t know why. It just does.

Toushirou keeps his clenched fists by his sides

“I’m sorry for the trouble.” 

Toushirou lowers his head in apology, so he doesn’t see what expression Sakata was pulling when the man says them.

“… It was no trouble.”

* * *

“I’m back.”

“Welcome back. Ah, who might these people be, Toshi?” 

Toushirou shuffles to give the rest of the gang a better look. “Here’s the helpers I have with the Yorozuya, Kagura and Shimura Shinpachi. And here’s Sakata Gintoki—” Toushirou looks at the Vice-commander and meets his eyes. 

“A friend.” The permhead supplies.

“… _A friend_.” The raven parrots. 

“Oh, the Yorozuya! How nice to finally meet you.” The old lady approaches them in the entryway, greeting Kagura and Shinpachi in delight. 

“I’m Shiori. Thank you for taking care of Toshi all this time.” 

They exchange stories. Shiori is the late Hijikata Tamegorou’s wife. Her husband died six years ago and ever since then, she’s been living alone in this small house at the outskirts of the village. Toushirou comes every year to pay a visit and helps her. The boy; in Shiori’s eyes, Toushirou is still the same boy that her husband took in as little brother, he doesn’t talk much whenever he’s there, but he’d speak about this small odd job business he built in Edo, all happy and proud shown from his demeanor.

Sakata glances at the guy sitting on the engawa, smoking tobacco instead of joining in the conversation inside. Kagura and Shinpachi share their side of the stories with the old woman. They laugh when Kagura begins telling something rather animatedly. The silver haired man decides to move to the porch. 

“So, what is it, then?” Sakata sits next to Toushirou. Eyes on the paddy field. Toushirou plucks out the kiseru and huffs out a trail of smoke.

“Debt collector.” Sakata glances at him. “My father gained his wealth by doing illegal trading. The Hijikata farm prospered when he was head of the family, but he also borrowed a lot of money from different mafias. He died and then my brother became the head. Tamegorou managed to keep the family together despite the amount of debt that the bastard left.” 

Toushirou takes another inhale of his tobacco. “When he died, all of the family assets were taken by the yakuza.” So those are the guys that they found occupying the current Hijikata house. Huh. 

“And now?” Sakata faces Toushirou, inquiring despite knowing the answer, predicting it. 

“They’re still after the debt. They found out I’ve been sending money to Shiori.” 

“Loan sharks, huh.” 

Toushirou exhales into the sky.

“When is your plan?” Sakata gazes back on the field. It’s such a simple vague question, nothing is given, nothing is received, interpret it however you like. Yet Toushirou knows well what the Vice-commander means because the man already knows what’s inside the Yorozuya’s head. How peculiar is that, this way of understanding each other. Sakata asks not of what but when, the implication is as clear as broad daylight.

“Tonight.” Toushirou answers honestly because what’s the point in lying anymore?

* * *

Toushirou walks towards the parked police car, standing next to the guy laying on top of the hood, arms folded behind those silver curls as a makeshift pillow. Hearing the approaching footsteps, Sakata jumps off and pats his stiff back. 

“If you’re involving yourself as a police—”

“Who says I’m doing this as a policeman?” Toushirou looks into those blood red eyes. Unwavering, those eyes of the Vice-commander are as steady as ever. “I don’t like loan sharks in general, especially those who prey on feeble old women. Plus, you won’t go back to Edo if this isn’t dealt with, right?” 

Disbelief is the first thing that comes out of Toushirou, at the sight of this man who has discarded his Shinsengumi coat and vest, just in his button ups. He looks just like any other guy you’d find on the street; not a policeman, certainly not the White Demon Vice-commander of Shinsengumi. Maybe closer to a salaryman on his way home after work. He’s just some silver permhead samurai who happens to be here in the countryside, chasing after the disappearance of a friend. Friends, huh.

_Since when did they become that in the first place?_

Toushirou smiles.

“Kagura, Shinpachi, you two stay here.”

There’s a rustle from the bushes next to the parked car and the two kids come out from their hidings. 

“We’re coming with you, Toshi!” 

“Shiori-san told us all about it, we’ll follow you anywhere you go, Toushirou-san. That’s why, please let the two of us come with you!” 

“I said _you two stay here_ , didn’t I?” Toushirou shuts them both. Sakata watches the scene rolls with mild surprise. The guy could definitely decipline the stubbornest of bunch, he thinks to himself.

“But, Toshi—” “But, we—”

“Stay here. Protect the _client_ until the job is done. We can’t let the enemy get behind our backs and take their chances. We’re the Yorozuya, aren’t we?” Kagura and Shinpachi have a different shine in their eyes. The order is loud and clear from their leader. And just like that they understand where they should be. The two of them nod before turning their backs.

Shinpachi looks at Sakata and Kagura follows. “I leave it to you, Sakata-san.” “Permhead.” 

The silver haired samurai shoves a finger right up his ear in reply. 

And the pairs walk a separate way. Kagura and Shinpachi going back inside the small house. Toushirou and Sakata heading towards the former Hijikata family house. The moon watches over the four of them. Toushirou lights up his kiseru as they tread their way, side by side.

“You know they will target the house as well so you’re having the kids look out for the old lady; and you still think that you could’ve done this all by yourself?” Sakata breaks the silence, hands in his pockets. 

“I’d find my way even if they aren’t here, somehow… “ Sakata rolls his eyes, even without facing the man, Toushirou knows he’s doing that. Yeah. Right. _Somehow._ That’s what he’s been racking his brain for the past couple days, extending his stay with the old woman and investigating those leeches that’s been blackmailing her. He can’t stand that. 

In truth, Toushirou came unprepared for the entire thing. He only found out about the threats by accident. They’ve been blackmailing her for the past two years. The thought of threats that the old woman endured is enough to make Toushirou’s blood boil in rage. He’ll come clean with it, he has no particular plan other than just wrecking havoc in that place he used to call his home. Maybe he’ll burn the place down as well. 

“You should get yourself a mobile phone, it’s really convenient, you know.” 

“Too troublesome. People should just talk in front of each other’s faces when they want to talk.” 

“But it’s still convenient when you want backup.” Toushirou could feel the line of agreement being unspoken somewhere there. Analogs, another characteristic that they both share again, huh?

Those who live by their swords, die by their swords. Those who only trust in themselves and things that they can control without worry. When they both make an entrance to the defiled ground of what once was the Hijikata household, they both have each other’s back. Not because they’re protecting the other or shielding the other from attacks. It’s just two samurais thrusting their swords forward, in the process of killing their enemies, they cover the other’s weaknesses. There’s never anything more than that. Even without having to trust in the other person, their swords will be there to slay the enemies before they could reach them, surely. 

That’s why, when one of the yakuza hits Toushirou in the stomach and the raven sputters out blood, he knows Sakata is there to slash the enemy’s hand from its limb. When another enemy manages a shallow cut across Sakata’s shoulder, Toushirou is there to pierce the Yakuza’s abdomen clean. One by one, the enemies fall onto their own pools of blood. Sakata’s white shirt is dyed red. Toushirou’s kimono is soiled crimson. 

“As expected of the Thorny brat. You haven’t changed a single bit, _Toshi_.” 

Both of them glares at the last person in the room, standing disgustingly smug at the back this whole time, watching the carnage. Toushirou recognizes the stranger, this Sakata notices when the man next to him seems to be suddenly enveloped in a different kind of rage. 

“ _You_.” So much venom in that voice, Sakata has never heard that from the Yorozuya before.

“I know you’d come. Though I didn’t expect you to bring a _friend_.” The man sneers. “Did you find yourself a friend, Toshi? A thorny kid like you finally found a friend?” A disgustingly loud cackle fills the room and Sakata can see the way Toushirou’s hold of his bokken is shaking by his side. 

“Shut up.”

“How did you get him? Did you pay him money? Or with your body—”

The man gasps for air when Toushirou pins him down in a chokehold. “I say _shut up_.”

“It’s— _useless_ , T-Toshi.. You can r-rampage all you want—, the d-debt will still be th-there. You’ll… destroy it all... always—” Even with air leaving his windpipe, the man still looks at Toushirou like he’s the one who’s choking the Yorozuya and not the other way around. 

“It’s no use—”

Toushirou tightens his grip on that neck. If this kills the man, then so be it. 

“You can’t—repay it… Not e-even wi… your— … ody...” 

Toushirou loses his grip and coughs out blood onto the man’s face, it splatters across that manic grin. He looks down to find a short blade lodging itself right under his ribcage. Red seeping into the white fabric. The next thing he sees is his own reflection on a blood-drenched sword between him and the man he’s strangling. Sakata kills the man.

“He said shut up, didn’t he?” Toushirou looks up at Sakata. There’s a hardened expression on the silver haired man, who lifts Toushirou up without hesitation in an instant. 

Leaning against the Vice-commander, they both walk away from the house. The raven’s breath is ragged. Once they’re outside, Toushirou hands Sakata his tobacco pouch. “The house… “

Sakata understands it. He shifts the bleeding man on his side so that he could light the pouch before throwing it at the paper screen. They set the building ablaze, watching from a distance as the fire spread across all sections of the house. Flame engulfing the wood. 

“Tell me about that man.” Sakata helps Toushirou walk back home. The raven trails blood on the ground, Sakata is well aware of this and that is exactly why he wants the man to keep on talking. He needs to stay conscious. 

“One of.. —family. He—when the bast…rd died, he left home.. Joined th—… mafia..” 

“Hated Tame—gorou so much… Was… the one—who… hired.. the band—… its..”

They’re almost there. Just a little bit more. Sakata can drive him to the nearest clinic once they’re back at the house. Toushirou is growing weaker in his hold. When the silver haired man spots the white police car, he immediately shouts for Kagura and Shinpachi. The two kids come running down the street and help in hauling their injured leader into the backseat of the car. Shiori sees them and comes running down as well, crying out Toushirou’s name. Sakata drives them as fast as he can to the clinic.

* * *

“Sakata-san, will you join me for a moment?” The Vice-chief looks up from the hospital bench. They move Toushirou into the local hospital after he’s treated for emergency at the clinic. The blade had missed his vital organs, but Toushirou suffered a significant amount of blood loss that needed him to be hospitalized for several days at the very least, before he could be released and nursed at home. 

Sakata accompanies Shiori in visiting Hijikata Tamegorou’s grave. Kagura and Shinpachi are keeping watch of Toushirou at the hospital. 

“He was the son from the old man’s mistress.” Shiori begins. “Tamegorou brought him in after his mother died, not long after the old man himself died. My husband was his half-brother, but he treated the boy like a son. They were incredibly close.” 

“The rest of the family hated the boy. But because Tamegorou was the head of the family, they kept that hatred behind closed doors.” 

“An incident happened; a group of bandits came to rob the house. The house was supposed to be empty at that time, but the boy and my husband just came back from the field. Tamegorou protected him and lost his eyes to the bandits. The boy saw blood on his elder brother’s face and the next thing he knew, there were people on the ground clutching their gouged-out eyes. The rest of the family saw the boy standing in the middle of the room holding a bloodied knife. He ran away from home after that.”

“He was known as the Thorny kid, ever since then. He lived in the abandoned shrine, he’d pick up fights with every other kid and teenagers in the village. Never once did he come back home.”

“But he came back once, before my husband died. The boy came with no greetings, just stayed by his elder brother’s side until the man passed away. After the funeral, he went to Edo. I realized that Toushirou never really left Tamegorou’s side. He tried to keep his brother safe by not staying in the family house.” 

“Toushirou never said it but I know how much he tried to help Tamegorou with their father’s debt. And even after my husband died, he still protected me.” 

Sakata remains silent, listening to the old woman’s tale. Initially, he doesn’t want to hear this story. It feels intrusive of the man, a side of the Yorozuya that he isn’t supposed to know. But when he reasons that the old woman herself is telling him this, even bringing him to visit Toushirou’s late brother’s grave; Sakata is no longer just a stranger to the Yorozuya boss, isn’t he?

But the guilt is still there. This is something that, perhaps, even Toushirou himself doesn’t want him to know. Or maybe this is his way of telling Sakata more about himself. The man owed the Vice-commander a personal tale and with how tight-lipped the man tends to be, this seems appropriate of him, having his story unraveled by people close to him. 

Maybe he’s allowed to hear this story. Toushirou let him come to destroy that house with him, after all.

* * *

Several weeks have passed. The two samurais haven’t seen each other in a long while, their secret appointments are postponed with no further notice. At least that’s what Toushirou thought, but then Sakata called him in the middle of the day and asked if he’s free tonight. The Yorozuya hasn’t thanked the man properly for what he did weeks ago, so Toushirou took the chance immediately.

And thus, they sat in the middle of their usual booked room. Finally seeing each other face to face and the first thing that Toushirou notices is the prominent dark marks under the Vice-commander’s eyes. 

“Tough work?” 

Toushirou watches the Vice-chief rub a hand over his face, tussling his already messy hair even more in the process.

“Something like that.” The resignation in the other’s voice begs to be addressed. 

The thing is, even with their busyness in their works, they’d still at the very least get a sight of each other across the street or something. The way their lives have been connected now makes it like they’re just fated to see each other on the other side of the road, whether they expect it or not. But not even seeing a strand of that permy hair for weeks? Close to a month? That’s just odd. And the way the man deflects it is even odder. 

“I haven’t seen you at all since Bushuu, you sure you’re just busy, Vice-commander-san?” Toushirou tries to be the more engaging one this time. Sakata is always the one who starts the conversation, be it from meddling questions or unimportant quips.

“Yeah, sort of.” The raven frowns at that. 

“Come on, you said you’re saving the bitching for when you have something in mind, right? Don’t you have one right now inside that curly head of yours? I’m a good listener.” Toushirou even tops his words with refilling the man’s empty cup of sake. 

Sakata pinches the bridge of his nose before speaking finally. “You know how we ended up having to stay in Bushuu for your recovery?” 

Toushirou huffs, tugging his face into an awkward expression. “I told you to go back to Edo before us. You didn’t have to stay.”

“Sougo thought it would be funny to replace the Vice-commander since he’s been gone for too long with a robot.” He’s deflecting again. Toushirou lets him and raises his eyebrow on the robot part instead. “Got it from that old man Gengai.” 

“So you had a problem with a robot? Did it destroy the barrack or something?”

Toushirou watches the man sigh and he seems to be letting out years-worth of frustration with that one exhale. “Wish it was that simple, honestly.” Sakata takes his cup of sake. 

“The robot not only took my job but also everyone’s memory of me, he replaced it with his own. When I got back, everyone was saying Kintoki, Kintoki, Kintoki. _Fuck_ , Tatsuma was so ecstatic when he found out at the end.” 

“What happened next?”

“Nobody remembered me, that bastard also pinned me as an infiltrator and nearly had me sentenced to seppuku.” Toushirou’s eyes widen just the slightest. His words were out before he could think of them thoroughly.

“You could’ve asked for our help. Tama could’ve helped you.”

Sakata peers at him with a gaze that seems to hold Toushirou down in place, it’s like his body freezes underneath that sight. “I did ask.”

Toushirou blinks.

“I came to your place, but you didn’t remember me at all. The news of my execution was spread everywhere, and you said you didn’t want to do anything with the Shinsengumi, especially someone in their custody. So you had Kagura-chan kick me out.” 

“I… don’t remember… “ 

Sakata looks at him some more. A bunch of unsorted emotions coil inside the raven. When Sakata finally looks away, it feels like it’s not just the conversation that’s being dismissed, but Toushirou himself feels like being dismissed.

“It’s fine. I got my useless bunch to remember me in the end and they destroyed the robot before my execution. Sougo and Gengai got out scotch free because everyone thought that was funny and a well-deserved lesson for someone like me.” Sakata exhales a self-deprecating laughter. Toushirou just watches him in constipation, not feeling a single bit of humor in that explanation. He doesn’t find it funny at all

“Sorry for not remembering you.” 

Red meets blue again. 

“I said it’s fine, yeah? Everything is back to normal now. That’s all that matters.” 

Those words aren’t enough to settle this sense of _wishing_ inside Toushirou. “Your useless bunch, are they your friends from your temple school?” 

Sakata blinks at him. “Yeah.”

Right. He can’t possibly compete with people who know this man from the very beginning. Those who know Sakata Gintoki more than just the Vice-commander of Shinsengumi, certainly more than Toushirou who just happens to be his acquaintance or some sort. Katsura and Takasugi, he guesses as much. Those are Sakata’s close friends. 

He wishes he’s Sakata’s friend.

“Tell me more about yourself.”

“What?” 

“Tell me more. That way I won’t forget you if things like that happen again.” Toushirou doesn’t even know where these words are coming from but he’s determined, mouth already running too far for his head to catch up. “They remember because they know you more than everyone else, right?” 

“You…” Sakata has an unreadable expression; his brows are knitted in hard concentration. “Do you even _know_ what you’re asking here?”

He does? He doesn’t? He’s just asking to know more about the other man, right? _What is the silver permhead even implyi—_

Toushirou feels his face heating up. 

“Yorozuya…”

“Who says I want to be your friend, you useless permhead! It’s nothing like that, it’s to save everyone the trouble from dealing with a moron like you! Who the hell wants to be your friend, not me, why would I ever be your friend!”

“I didn’t say anything.” 

“Y-you were implying!”

“I didn’t imply anything.”

“Shut up, you rotten permhead!”

“Why do you always insult my hair? What the hell has my hair ever done to you, you disgusting mayora! And what are you even on, is your head still messed up? You’re suddenly asking about my well being after always acting so cold to me, and now you’re asking me to tell you more about myself? Are you even listening to yourself? What is going on with you, _sheesh_.” Sakata’s words ring so much truth that Toushirou shuts up, simmering in his seat with his face growing redder by the minute. The more he digests his own words, the more embarrassed he gets. He always loses everything whenever he’s with this stupid bastard. 

“You have stupid hair.”

"..."

"Sugar freak!"

“Are you done insulting me, Yorozuya-san?”

_This frustrating asshole…_

“Why did you come to Bushuu?” 

“Your kids asked me to.”

“Why did you accept that?”

“As a policeman I can’t let minors go out to the countryside unsupervised, can I?”

“But you said it yourself, you weren’t doing it in your capacity as a police officer.” 

Sakata takes a gulp of his refilled sake; _not answering, then_. 

“The hour is up.”

The Vice-commander begins to rise from his seat and Toushirou sees the man rummaging his pocket for the familiar envelope. He quickly follows and shoves that envelope back towards the man’s chest before Sakata could even offer it to him. His hand resting over Sakata’s.

“No more payment.”

They stand there indefinitely before Sakata breaks their eye-contact first, pocketing the envelope and walks towards the door. 

“Gin!”

The silver haired man answers the call with a glance.

“Can I—… Is ‘Gintoki’ alright?” 

Toushirou’s hesitation is met with a small smile.

“Sure.”

* * *

They’re proper drinking buddies now.

During the day, they would occasionally pass each other. The usual jab is always thrown about, their banters remain the same. Sougo and Kagura fight all the same. It’s how the Yorozuya and Shinsengumi interact best, just at each other’s throat for the fun of it. Sometimes they only exchange glances on the street, sometimes they meet by accident on the dango stand, the convenience store, or at the small tobacco shop that Toushirou frequents. A comment, an insult, their language remains crass as ever. 

However, sometimes, now, they’d meet at izakayas, at ramen stalls, or oden stands. Only the two of them, their setting is expanding, no longer confined in a single reserved Japanese-style room on the edge of Kabuki-cho. Their conversations now open for the public to overhear. Toushirou no longer cares about his reputation, what is it to begin with, anyway? 

He arrives at the bar earlier. They no longer set a prior appointment like in a dental clinic, if they happen to see the other person in their usual eating place, then consider the seat next to it taken by the next minute. Just gravitating towards each other because _why not?_ It was tiresome to keep denying and having to settle on an elaborate contract when truly, all that they desire is just a good company in each other. 

Despite everything that he’s said about the permhead, the frustration stemming from this pettiness inside him that blossomed out of nowhere, Toushirou never said that he didn’t enjoy the other’s company. Sure, annoying as hell, has his way in making his heart wants to flip inside-out (this one is still shoved at the very bottom of Toushirou’s mind, he doesn’t want to dig it up, nope, nope, keep it down there, preferably forever), all his facets that paints a complex image of the man—Toushirou enjoys his time with him. Those one-hours were enjoyable. 

_What is he even thinking, repeating words like that—what more of an emphasis should he put it on, tch._

“Am I late?” Gintoki walks inside the bar in his casual kimono. The dark robe contrasting his silver permy hair. He takes a seat next to Toushirou.

“Nah, just the usual.” He huffs out the smoke and idly listens to Gintoki ordering himself his Uji-Sakata don. Toushirou himself already finishes his bowl of Toushirou special. Neither ever waits. If one of them arrives earlier, then one of them eats first. They order their own food. They pay their own tabs. Just two people who happen to be at the same place, sitting next to each other. 

For many, perhaps, a downgrade to the arrangement they previously had. Something that was more VIP and secluded in a private room. But Toushirou prefers this. Among the crowd, their light banters drowned by the other customers' cacophony. It’s easier for his heart. 

Or so he thought.

You see, lately, his mind is split into two. One trying to keep the water from ever forming a ripple, trying to maintain the status quo by not initiating anything. The other one is constantly trying to sabotage every single action, trying to gain something, however vague it may be. 

It’s unlike him to be impulsive like this. Alcohol doesn’t help. Alcohol never helped at all. 

“You drunk already?” 

“Heh, in your dreams, permhead.” Gintoki raises a challenging eyebrow at the color of Toushirou’s face. Those blue eyes stare woozily at the stupid Vice-commander.

Annoying sugar freak. Eating adzuki beans on top of rice like it’s edible. How can that ever be edible? Is he not a walking pre-diabetic? How is his teeth not already in cavities and rotting? Those parfaits and strawberry milks as well. Not including the candies. Eugh, how sweet is this guy’s mouth must be? Very. Disgustingly so. Damn, he has a bean stuck on the corner of his mouth.

“Oi, there’s..” 

“Hmm?” 

Shit, his body is sabotaging himself. 

Toushirou reaches out and wipes the single stray bean off the Vice-commander’s face, that bean enters his own mouth, and he chews; eyes never leaving the red counterpart. Those crimson orbs widen at him, at the sudden bewitching action unfitting of the Yorozuya. Toushirou half-registers himself doing that. 

“What did you think you were doing just now?” 

“Cleaning the mess because the Vice-chief of Shinsengumi eats like a child.” Hazy blue notices the way those fiery red glances down at his lips for just a split second.

Have their rotten bond tangled enough to warrant Toushirou a test in the water? He’d like to know that.

* * *

They don’t stop kissing. 

It’s ridiculous; the moment they entered the hotel room, immediately Gintoki was all over him. The desperation is palpable, he’s been holding himself down since they walked out of that bar. It’s only by miracle that Gintoki didn’t just ravish this peculiarly sultry Yorozuya on a deserted alleyway, fucked him right on the street like some horny dog or something. A miracle indeed.

Toushirou’s hands are carding over the silver locks, tangling, pulling, desperate all the same. His mouth opens voluntarily for Gintoki, inviting. The raven finally admits to his desire of wanting to have a taste of that lips. He’s more than just sabotaging himself now, he’s letting himself loose. No more hindrance. 

Alcohol is dangerous.

They separate and there’s a trail of saliva between them. Toushirou looks up with a hooded gaze, chest slightly heaving from the lack of air. He’s drunker than he originally thought. “Was this what you had in mind when you first walked into my doorstep?” 

Gintoki leans down to ravage his neck. The low growl that accompanies his words spreads warmth through Toushirou’s entire being. “ _You have no idea_.”

Toushirou fumbles to grab on Gintoki’s sash, untying the obi. In return, his own clothes are peeled one by one, haste in each of the discarded clothing articles, the Vice-commander’s impatient nature comes to light. 

“Why the suddenness?” Gintoki peers back at Toushirou. 

The other part of him reaches for that stagnation. 

“Do however you like, say whatever you want.” Toushirou kisses him with the intention of sharing the last bit of alcohol in his system with the other man. “We’ll forget this in the morning.”

The Vice-commander has a smile on his face, it lacks any semblance of joy. 

Gintoki bends to trail kisses all over Toushirou’s body, his hands are searing hot against his skin. He feels the man's hand lingering on his fresh scars, he himself lingers on the Vice-commander's scars. “What do you want to know?”

“Who are you?” Toushirou cradles his head and guides the man back up to look him in the eye.

Gintoki holds his wrist. “Vice-commander of Shinsengumi.”

“Before that?” 

A kiss to the knuckles. “Dojo challenger.”

“And before?”

A kiss to the center of the palm. “War general.”

“Before?”

A kiss to the heel of his hand. “A disciple.”

Toushirou pulls him in and kisses his mouth. 

From then on, it’s a mixture of wants and pauses. In every other form of touch, Gintoki reveals a bit more about himself. He was a disciple turned war general along with his friends when their teacher was captured. He grinds against Toushirou’s hips. He was the Shiroyasha. Gintoki spreads him open with his fingers, pressing on a spot that has Toushirou cries into the back of his hand. He lost the war. Toushirou moans into his shoulder.

Gintoki slowly dives within him and their connected heat nearly has Toushirou’s mind exploding. He tries to focus on his breathing, easing himself for the silver haired man. His toes curl when Gintoki fully sheaths himself inside Toushirou. A broken call of the other’s name escapes the raven’s lips, it is quick to be chased by the Vice-chief. 

They begin in an unhurried pace, both trying to figure out each other’s tempo, to match rhythm. Once they find it, with Toushirou letting out an audible gasp and throwing his head back into the heaps of pillows underneath him, they pick it up. Gintoki captures him by the wrist, keeping him in place as his hips thrusts at a steady rate. It’s an unfair move from the Vice-chief as Toushirou has no way in hiding his mess. Thus, he shuts his eyes and bites his lips, holding down his own voice. 

Toushirou chokes a sob and Gintoki shifts their position. He lets go of the raven’s hands, lifting one of his legs and letting it rest on the silver samurai’s shoulder, spreading Toushirou further for better access. Gintoki tilts his head and plants a kiss on his knee, then he picks up his pace again. 

The Yorozuya is always one to care over other people’s businesses. He’s the one in charge of those two brats. The one who has people leaning on him when they’re drunk, when they’re injured, when they’re lost. To have himself be manhandled like this, by the Vice-commander no less, loosening and being taken care of; suffice to say that it makes Toushirou even drunker. 

So, _this_ is the taste of being the drunk one. He doesn’t know if he’d like to be sober ever again. 

“Gin…” His arms reach out for the other, wanting to hold. Gintoki lowers himself to meet them, hands on his hips and his thrusts have a little stutter to it. Toushirou’s fingers dig against Gintoki’s back, nails raking on the skin when he feels the Vice-commander getting deeper. Too much, yet not enough. He doesn’t know how to appropriately express this, he’s not one to express such desire after all. So Toushirou just pulls the man even closer, slotting their heads on each other’s neck and Toushirou stifles his incoherent desires into the juncture of muscles and bones. Gintoki seems to catch the drift.

This desperation is unbecoming of him. He’ll forget it, they’ll forget it. When morning comes, this will be forgotten. The way their body envelopes and being enveloped, incorrigible noises that seem to form enough of a sentence for the other to translate it into _more and more_. What Gintoki reveals and hides, what Toushirou exposes and be exposed to; it will all be lost comes daylight.

Just tonight, inside this bubble of time, they share a little bit of something from their true colors. Tonight, they bridge their gap. Just this single night, they succumb to their impure thoughts.

They stay connected even after it’s done; when the two of them are heaving to catch their forgotten breaths, Gintoki’s forehead pressed against Toushirou’s chest, and Toushirou who wants to bury himself into the white sheets in hiding, preferably forever. 

Tomorrow they’ll be back to ‘Why did you come to Bushuu’ and ‘What are you even asking’. Come morning and it’ll be gone. Toushirou scrunches the sheet in his grip. 

Tonight, while they’re still honest and uninhibited. 

“Why were you there?” His voice a little hoarse from all the choked gasps.

“I was worried.” They’re still connected.

“Why were you worried?”

“I don’t like the idea of you being hurt or alone.” Gintoki removes himself from within him.

“Why is that?”

The man hesitates and that itself is an answer for Toushirou.

Gintoki rolls to lay himself on the other side of the mattress, his back facing the raven in a posture ready for sleep. “I don’t know.” 

Yeah. 

Neither does he. 

But something is crawling, freed from that reckless and stubborn side of him that just craves and craves. Very unlike him. Much much so. 

From the very beginning, their arrangement was already bad for his heart. It rattles the cage with every side that is shown to him, again and again, through casual meetings. And now, it’s even harder. They’ll be pretending tomorrow. If he tries to understand more now, there will be no going back. 

Curiosity. 

Curiosity is his killer.

“Why me?” Toushirou’s back is turned to face Gintoki’s. There is space between them, but heat radiates all the same. 

“You’re weird.” Gintoki begins after several beats have passed. He hears a shuffle from the other side, Gintoki turns himself to lay on his back and stares at the alabaster ceiling. “You don’t see me as a government dog. You don’t fear the Shiroyasha. You don’t judge me for what I was or what I’ve become.”

“To you, I’m just a permhead, a sugar freak, a moron, a bastard.” Toushirou shifts to face the man. “Even your kids insult me as well.” He hears a soft huff of laughter coming out from Gintoki.

“I shouldn’t feel happy about it. But I am.”

Toushirou couldn’t keep his eyes off that smile.

“Gintoki,” He desires that smile. That’s the reason why he accepted the man’s weird arrangement, isn’t it? 

“are we friends?”

Gintoki gives him a look that says an earsplitting ‘Are you stupid?’. It’s cranked even louder when Toushirou has the audacity to just blink at the silence.

“You’re seriously asking _that_ after we just had sex?” The silver haired man gives an incredulous face with a hint of red hue at the tips of his ears. 

Toushirou takes too long to crank his still-too-high-from-orgasm brain to realize what he just asked, but when he does, his face automatically bursts into tomato. Not even during the entire fucking session was he this embarrassed, goddammit.

Gintoki suddenly breaks into laughter. 

“W-what are you laughing about!?” 

“You’re just— _Pfft_ , we already hit _home run_ with what we just did, and you’re still wondering if we’re _friends_.” Gintoki laughs even louder. “What, you want us to be fuck buddies, then?” 

Something uncomfortable settles in Toushirou’s stomach with Gintoki’s words. His brows knit as the byproduct. This catches Gintoki’s sight from the corner of his eye and the man’s laughter dies down. 

“No?” Gintoki raises an eyebrow. Toushirou scowls further. “Yeah, me neither.”

Emotional rollercoaster, Toushirou can’t deal with this. What is he even doing, what are they even doing; he’s sick of this ride already. One last sabotage to throw it all, then.

“I’m not forgetting this, in the morning.” Blue eyes staring at red until they meet in an unbreakable spell.

Gintoki turns to face him properly. “Where do we go? From here on.”

“We’ll figure it out, or something…”

* * *

“Oi, rotten Vice-chief.”

“Mayora leader.”

Gintoki and Toushirou remain silent in their side of the booth. Across them are two people with menacing aura and one floating glasses. The parfait that Gintoki ordered has melted and Toushirou’s mayonnaise covered coffee has already gone cold. The five of them have been at it for a considerable amount of time. When the two join forces like this, they become an immovable object. (and unstoppable force with the younger pair across them. The floating glasses act like a cutout cardboard tree during a kindergarten stage performance, absolutely useless.) 

“Sakata-san, you’re not subtle when you sneak out from the barracks to go and fuck Danna at cheap love hotels.”

“We’re sick of you two homos fighting during the day but having sex at night. Just date already, yes.”

Shinpachi sips on his iced tea.

This is not what they had in mind when they think about a scenario where their secret appointments are found out by other people. They expect something less of a ‘parents scolding their children during dinnertime’ scenario, and more of a ‘oh gosh, they’ve been fucking?!!???!? You kidding??!? All along??!?’ kind of reaction. With the latter they can just let the surprise dies over time, ignoring it until everyone just goes ‘yeah, they’re fucking’. But this? This situation where Gintoki and Toushirou are forced to sit down in front of their kids—Kids!! They’re minors! How the hell did they know, they shouldn’t know! They shouldn’t be the one doing the pep talk! Gintoki can accept Katsura or Tatsuma, hell, he’d even accept Takasugi. Kondo might be more appropriate. But Sougo?! He’s the last person he’d ever choose, yet at the same time, the first person he guesses would know of him and Toushirou’s secret arrangement. No other bastard is interested in making Gintoki’s life miserable more than this sadist brat. 

And on Toushirou’s side? With Kagura and Shinpachi? It’s literally the same sentiment. Last and first whatshit. Of course they’d know. The question isn’t how they know it but when will they know it. Gintoki and Toushirou only lasted a week and a half in keeping their outings a hush-hush.

Ah, right. They still won’t properly address it, despite already settling that this isn’t just some casual sex arrangement. They care about each other but won’t ever utter it, not even in their cryptic way of talking. Maybe through actions, Gintoki is incredibly touchy and kissy when they have sex, it makes Toushirou wants to crawl inside a hole. And on the other side you have Hijikata Toushirou trying his best to ‘service’ his partner. He’s terrible at it, he’s too embarrassed to do anything sultry. But the raven knows it’s a tad bit unfair for the permhead sugar freak to do all the work, so every now and then Toushirou tries to return the sentiment by initiating it. 

Yet, still, they both refuse to label whatever it is that’s developing between them.

It’s clear what it is.

They’re just too stubborn about it.

They’re the children in this restaurant, aren’t they?

“We’ll give you 300 yen to just date, Sakata-san.”

“We’ll buy you strawberry milk and mayonnaise, just date already, yes.”

Shinpachi places down his glass of iced tea. “Can we go home now?”

**Author's Note:**

> first of all, oh god i slaved on this thing for like weeks because i wanna get it done for ginhiji day and that i dont feel like making a multi chapter of it lol i have some established hc for vice-commander sakata and it overlaps with my other fic with sakata fukucho and ponikata. of course i couldn't really put everything i have for this au in this fic but here's some additional info i guess: 
> 
> \- gintoki is vice-commander of shinsengumi. takasugi is vice-commander of mimawarigumi (nobume is the 1st div captain mirroring sougo). sakamoto is head of the immigration bureau. katsura is still a joui leader. the twist here comes that instead of acting as opposition to the government, the joui4 are part of the whole government scheme where they try to keep the status quo of having enemy (aka joui). the act of terrorism and such are staged, the government has full control over the entire country. the joui4 acts under the tendoshuu itself  
> \- this is bc rather than having shoyo executed, shoyo is used as a threat to have the joui4 cooperation with the tendoshuu  
> \- the shinsengumi originally was created by matsudaira and isaburo, when it was still called the roshigumi; gintoki was 'placed' in shinsengumi, he was introduced as a dojo challenger before the roshigumi formed, he won against kondo and his prize was a position within kondo's men.  
> \- meanwhile toshi went to edo after his brother died (as explained on the fic), he replaced gintoki's scenario of meeting otose at the graveyard and promised otose's husband that he'll protect otose  
> \- he goes by toushirou instead because the he's pretty much thrown away from the hijikata family. he still have hijikata toushirou for his legal documents and such, but he rather not go by his family name. 
> 
> i try my best to keep the characters in-tact despite putting them in different settings, i hope i did them justice ahahaha feel free to ask more, like about the character or what. i can't really put all my hc here but i have a good chunk of worldbuilding for this au hehe 
> 
> THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING THIS <3
> 
> art by me (velvetcat09)


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